Millionaires went up from 1040 to 1212 – expected to grow to more than 1400, when we get the full list from Portugal and UK. Press coverage of this years data harvesting festival for farmsubsidy.org was really good. Several medias round Europe used the material prepared by the festival in Brussels 3-4 of May 2010.

Adrian Mogos, Gavin Sheridan and Sebastian Mondial doing the last preparing before release in Brussels.

Both Tommy Kaas and Nils Mulvad joined the festival – Nils as responsible for the overall harvest of data. During the 2 days we also celebrated the fifth anniversery of Farmsubsidy.org – formed  3rd of May 2005. At the festival 17 people from 11 countries worked on getting the data out and harvesting the first stories in the data.

At the festival we also formed the network of CAR-journalists in Europe – datajournalism.eu.

The press release on the results of the festival: harvest-festival-press-release

The list of millionaires: http://tinyurl.com/2009-millionaires

Analyzis of all countries openness on farm subsidies:

http://tinyurl.com/transparency-rating

Brigitte Alfters blog on EU-Observer with links to all the press coverage of the release.

Jack Thurstons overview of all press coverage.

Use of data-possibilities in investigative journalism explodes in these years. That was one of my statements at the 7th Global Conference for Investigative Journalism and Computer-Assisted Reporting. With more than 500 participants from over 80 countries the conference in Geneva from 22th to 25th of April 2010 was a big revitalization of the network.

The threat from the Icelandic volcanic ash couldn’t stop people to find new ways to get to the conference from all over the world. Only few didn’t make it.

Keynote Seymour Hersh talking to the audience

On Friday the 22th of April I moderated the meeting of the Global Investigative Journalism Network. The conclusions were very promising with a lot of organizations participating the meeting. The network will continue the loose structure, having the meetings at the conferences as the highest authority. The network will accept new members when they are non-profit, non-partisan, has journalism as the main area and supporting the idea of investigative and computer-assisted reporting as a goal.

When my good friend Brant Houston and I back in 2003 in Copenhagen took the initiative to form the network we had the same statement for becoming member of the network. At that time I was in the steering committee in the network representing Danish Internationally Center for Analytical Reporting, Dicar. Dicar closed in 2006, and today I represent the Danish School of Media and Journalism in the network.

During the meeting we decided to have a volunteer group to do the practical work. I joined this group. We also heard the plans for the next conference in Kiev in Ukraine in September 2011, and there were some first ideas for places for the conference in 2013.

Look here for the website of the network and for the Geneva-conference. I took pictures during the conference. Look here for all of them (free to use).

CAR-training

On the special track on computer-assisted reporting the two main trainers, David Donald from US and Helena Bengtsson from Sweden, couldn’t come.

I then accepted to jump in Thursday morning to do the overall introduction on the status of CAR and restructure the many sessions missing trainers, relaying on other trainers. Sebastian Mondial from Germany, Luuk Sengers from Netherland, Mark Horvit and Brant Houston from US helped me by jumping in taking extra sessions on international data, beyond Google, and the use of spreadsheets and database managers in journalism.

Everybody were very enthusiastic, the audience very patient and I think all in the end went from these sessions with a lot of inspiration and useful information.
It also turned out to be really overcrowded in the training room for several of the sessions – totally changing the situation with minor interests some years ago.

After the presentations I found time to write handouts on the main content of my presentations:
Overview of CAR
International data
Beyond Google
Hands-on training in Excel and Access

An interview on the status of CAR

Moderation of two panels

Part of my job on the conference was also to moderate the presentations of Morten Frich, Berlingske Tidende in Denmark on the crowdsourcing project “the crime” and Blaz Zgaga, freelance from Slovenia, on the case of Patria – the paying of bribe from a Finnish state owned company selling arms to Slovenia. The bribes went to the former prime minister of Slovenia. Both were very impressing projects.

TV-documentary on Patria-case

And then I enjoyed the chat with some many old and new friends. It is the spirit of good journalism meeting at these conferences.

Panel at the global investigative journalism conference in Geneva 22th of April 2010
By nils.mulvad@kaasogmulvad.dk

Computer-Assisted Reporting has spread from US to the rest of the World. But still it’s only rarely spread.

Computer-Assisted Reporting spreading

Main tendencies today
1.    Journalists and medias are behind due to the fact that we hate numbers, data and information technology.
2.    We have the old school CAR being around for 20 years and connected to the PC: Excel-spreadsheet, Access-database managers, mapping, statistics as the main resources.
3.    We have a tradition of fighting for data and documents, which now are spreading to a lot of countries.
4.    Data is coming in floods now – and also new tools for working with data
5.    The main target now move to presentation on the web, meaning we see the environment of CAR-journalists melting together with the online media production. So it’s now gathering, analyzing and presentation by setting up automatic  tools. It is also melting this together with crowd sourcing and social media.

Training cover
The training at the global investigative journalism conference then cover:
1.    Find web-content
2.    Basic CAR-tools
3.    Present and share on the web – and other advanced stuff.
Then today these tools are also part of most of the other presentations at the conference. There’s often an element of the use of these tools in every good project today.

Some links to examples of the status
Using interactive graphics on the web:

European song contest from Norwegian paper VG

Word train from New York Times

Inaugural Words from US-Presidents (New York Times)

Using interactive graphics on the web and combine it with automatic generating of text:

High death rates for unskilled workers

Gathering data by robots, structure it and present it as part of an online media:

Texas Tribune

Panel at the global investigative journalism conference in Geneva 23th of April 2010
By nils.mulvad@kaasogmulvad.dk

In many years US was seen as the leader in Computer-Assisted Reporting, due to the fact that it was easy to get data in US, and much more difficult in other countries.
But this is also build on a misunderstanding. In US the journalists also have to fight hard and long battles to get data, and they do.

Overcrowded at the panel on international data

In the same way, journalists in other countries need to implement the same attitude, working for data. We started with that in Denmark in 1996, and slowly the possibilities began to change.
In 2004 Denmark as the first EU-country was forced to open for information on recipients of EU farm subsidies. The year after a lot of journalists, researchers and NGO’s formed farmsubsidy.org to join forces to get the data out in all EU-countries. And it was together with other initiatives a way to spread the attitude of fighting for data, using FOI or wobbing as it is called in Europe, round in European countries. Now we see a flood of data coming out in Europe. We see networks on specific topics (farm subsidy, fish subsidies, lobbyism, EU-structural funds).
First step is to start the process of getting data and use them in journalism – or to get the help from NGO who already have structured data from authorities. Often these NGO’s want to help journalists for free.
Next natural step is to begin working together cross-border on data or make projects between US and Europe on for instance lobbyism or farm subsidies.

Links from Nils Mulvad
Overview of payments in EU farm subsidies:

http://ec.europa.eu/agriculture/funding/index_en.htm
http://wobbing.eu/
www.fishsubsidy.org
www.farmsubsidy.org
Free data in Denmark: http://www.kaasogmulvad.dk/data/gratis/
European lobbyism: http://www.corporateeurope.org/
NGO working on EU-structural data: http://www.tbij.com/
Climate data: http://kmswww3.kms.dk/kortpaanettet/
Dangerous production in Denmark: http://www.aabenhedstinget.dk/?p=773

Links from Brant Houston
Banktracker: http://banktracker.investigativereportingworkshop.org/banks/
Economic meltdown: http://www.publicintegrity.org/investigations/economic_meltdown/data/maps/
Ujima project: http://ujima-project.org/dfid/country/
Many eyes: http://manyeyes.alphaworks.ibm.com/manyeyes/visualizations/what-is-collaboration
Official Google blog: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/
Finding identities: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2008/07/be-who-you-want-on-web-pages-you-visit.html
Google – statistics for a changing world: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/03/statistics-for-changing-world-google.html
Google lab for public data: http://www.google.com/publicdata/explore?ds=z1ebjpgk2654c1_&ctype=m&met_c=unemployment_rate&fdim_c=seasonality:S&met_s=unemployed&fdim_s=seasonality:S&ifdim=state&hl=en_US&dl=en_US&mapType=t
Movie on social network analysis: http://www.soc.duke.edu/~jmoody77/NetMovies/rom_flip.htm
Footnoted: http://www.footnoted.org/

EU subsidies to fish industry has not achived a fall in fishing capacity in the seven years 2000-2006, which was the goal of the the Financial Instrument for Fisheries Guidance (FIFG). This is the main conclusion in a new report from Pew Environment Group.

New report from Pew Environment Group

This has contributed to the worsening status of some stocks and has hindered the recovery of other stocks, as well as having had associated negative impacts on marine environment.

Fishing capacity in the EU fleet was reduced by 3 percent in terms of gross tonnage and 7 percent in terms of engine power (kW) over the seven years of the programme. These reductions are insufficient to make any significant impact on the imbalance between fishing opportunities and fishing capacity, particularly with estimated 2–3 percent annual efficiency gains through technological improvements.

FIFG support for the construction of around 3,000 vessels and the modernisation of nearly 8,000 vessels, compared to the scrapping of 6,000 vessels (a large proportion of which were small inshore vessels from Greece and Spain), is expected to have resulted in a net increase in fishing capacity.

Overall, around 54 percent of total FIFG funding was under measures that are identified as having a neutral or unclear impact on fishing capacity, with 29 percent under negative measures (vessel construction and modernisation) and just 17 percent under positive measures (scrapping and temporary cessation of fishing activities).

Kaas & Mulvad have contributed with statistical analysis to this shadow evaluation.

The report also have special sections for these countries:

Denmark I France I Germany I Greece I Italy I Poland I Portugal I Spain I Sweden I UK

See the conclusion and the whole report here.

The data is the result of a request for data to the EU Commission. Data is published om www.fishsubsidy.org

We are proud to tell that Kaas & Mulvad just was mentioned as an example of an innovative watchdog media. It happened, when Paris-based scholar, teacher and investigative author Mark Lee Hunter last weekend was doing a presentation at the SKUP conference in Norway. SKUP is the Norwegian investigative journalism organization.

The presentation was based on a working paper Mark Hunter as a part of the INSEAD Social Innovation Centre recently published. The title of the working paper is “Disruptive News Technologies: Stakeholder Media and the Future of Watchdog Journalism Business Models”.
The working paper is free and can be downloaded from http://markleehunter.free.fr.
The working paper describes, how the decline of the news industry is rooted in a vicious circle of financial leveraging leading to capacity cuts. Hunter and the INSEAD Social Innovation Centre argue that the future of watchdog journalism is directly linked to stakeholder media, which will furnish a growing share of the public and the revenues necessary for investigative reporting.
The report has several key points including:

• Revenue streams for watchdog media are splintering and diversifying. The news industry’s classic model (advertising plus circulation equals revenue) no longer suffices to ensure the industry’s growth.
• A key part of the future of watchdog journalism enterprises, in the short- and middle terms, lies outside the news industry.
• The relationship of journalists to their audience, and the value that is created for both, is undergoing a paradigm shift that will benefit watchdog journalism.

And as an example of “innovative watchdog media” the report mentions Kaas & Mulvad.

Yearly conference on Computer-Assisted Reporting

Tommy Kaas and Nils Mulvad participate in the conference on Computer-Assisted Reporting in Phoenix 11-14th of March 2010 – both as speakers.

Tommy Kaas Conduct 2 sessions on Google Maps together with Mike Corey, while Nils Mulvad join 2 panels as a speaker. One is on  integrating Computer-Assisted Reporting and Investigative reporting with social medias, another is a demo on how to integrate feeds on Facebook groups and Twitter.

A big group of Danish journalists participate in the conference.

Look at the whole program and list of speakers.

A short film (6 minutes) telling the story of how a small group of European journalists, researchers and computer programmers uncovered the secrets of the European Union’s 55 billion euro a year.

Klik her for at se den indsatte video.

Nils Mulvad is part of the network and do the data analysis in the project for all 27 EU memberstates.

Written the 08. November 2009 by Nils Mulvad

The biggest Danish analysis of detailed data on death rates for unskilled workers in Denmark showed exactly where and of what diseases the workers have a higher mortality rate compared to the average dane. The lessons was presented at the Danish conference on investigative journalism Saturday the 7th of November 2009 by editor Jonas Højlund, Fagbladet, Chase Davis from Hottype Consulting and Nils Mulvad.
See story and data on the web.
See magazine story in English.
See description of methods in English.
The story investigated death records of all members of the union 3F (unskilled workers) comparing it to standard death rates for the whole population. The aim was to see where the mortality rate was higher (and lower) for the members of the union, and which causes of death were higher and lower compared to the whole population.
This is the first time an analysis of Standard Mortality Rates has been done on such a big group and on such a detailed level in Denmark. It’s also the first time a web-presentation this ambitious was attempted in Denmark.
Major findings
1. The total number of deaths in the group analyzed was 121,054, compared to the expected figure (according to the standard mortality rate) of 113,200, i.e. 7,854 more deaths than normal. The total group consisted of 1.035.072 persons – then this was the biggest investigations of deaths for unskilled workers in Denmark.
2. Apart from homicide, of which there are relatively few cases, accidents are the primary cause of 3F members’ high rate of excessive mortality. Accidents caused 1,242 more deaths than the norm in the period studied. If 3F members had conformed to the national average (i.e. the standard mortality rate), there were would have been 5,224 deaths caused by accidents. But the actual number of fatal accidents was 6,466.
Other examples
Chase Davis pointed out at the conference that this project was adwanced – also compared to US standard.
He pointed to these examples:
Banktracker.
Texas Tribune elected official directory.
PolitiFact.
EveryBlock.
Hilary Clinton schedules.
Mug Shots.

Written the 13. November 2009 by Nils Mulvad

New way of following the political process and the individual politicians are emerging. We see different business models, and this will grow in the coming years. We see scraping of all kind of data from parliaments websites and politicians blogs and pages on Facebook and Twitter etc. The main thing now is to use it for journalistic stories and introduce text mining.

Five ways

We see five business models for covering politics with automatic tools.
1. Non-profit (from a media-background)
2. Ngo (activists)
3. Traditional media
4. New online media
5. Scientific project

Status

Possible to scrape parliamentary sites, but economic heavy. Business model not found yet.
Possible to scrape Facebook, blogs, Twitter, etc.
Textmining of speeches, blogs and tweets.
First steps into analysis and stories now.
Next step will be the municipality level.

Types of stories

Influence on politics (in many ways)
Connections
Voting (against partyline, government loses etc)
Analysis of speeches and questions
Economics of MP’s

Problems in stories with traditional coverage

Sourcedriven
Overwhelming
Focusing on surface, not content.

Websites on politicians

Texas Tribune. Look especially to the mission (non-profit), the layout, the structure of following every single politician with updates from twitter.
Texas Tribune.
Following one politicians.
The mission.

Votewatch.
Covering EU-Parliament. Financed as a close-to scientific project.

They work for you.

Danish site on Parliament.

Washington Post.

New York Times – Hillary Clinton schedule.

Handouts

Text mining.
Using Twitter and Facebook for journalists.
Political campaign on Facebook and Twitter.
Teaching online-journalism in Denmark.
Berlingske-project “I lægens hænder”.